10 Awesome Restaurants Inside Grocery Stores

Long gone are your grandparents’ days of traipsing from the butcher to the fishmonger to the produce stand to get all your shopping done. Today, the ultimate goal of grocery stores is to put everything under one roof—even the restaurant where you eat when you don’t actually feel like cooking all the food you bought.

This convenience-driven concept has been embraced by corporate behemoths on a national scale—full-scale Subways can be found within Walmarts across the nation, while Target has started to implement Starbucks and Pizza Hut branches within its stores. But the options go well beyond fast food: Whole Foods has begun to experiment with everything from ramen counters to dosa joints, ethnic markets house some of the best speciality food courts in America, and even Michelin-starred chefs have begun to set up shop within spitting distance of the bread aisle.

With Eataly expanding its Italian grocery store/restaurant concept to Chicago and prix-fixe spots like Le Restaurant popping up in NYC markets, the “shelf-to-table” dining trend shows no signs of slowing down. Perhaps the increased awareness of ingredients and sourcing has created a deeper bond between food stores and customers. Or maybe we’re all just getting too lazy to go shopping and go out to eat in different places. In either event, it’s time to get familiar with 10 of the country’s most exciting restaurants hidden inside grocery stores.

Manzo Ristorante (New York, NY)

Find it inside: Eataly
Address and phone: 200 5th Ave (212-229-2180)
Website: eataly.com/manzo
Mario Batali and Joe Bastianich's Italian mega-marked has six full-service restaurants inside of it, but the crown jewel is the meatcentric Manzo. While the other options inside Eataly can feel like eating in the pasta aisle, Manzo is cordoned off from the rest of the shop and gussied up with white table cloths and more attentive service. Beef is the thing, particularly in the form of Piemontese dishes that also make use of the top-grade imported ingredients from the surrounding market. Get the NY Strip Steak with fingerling potatoes, oyster mushrooms, and oxtail sumo, as well as the excellent pastas like tortelloni with braised beef and brown beech mushrooms.

Yuji Ramen (New York, NY)

Find it inside: Whole Foods
Address and phone: 95 E Houston St (646-262-1358)
Website: facebook.com/YujiRamen
Whole Foods locations across the country have been adding in-store restaurant options that take things a step beyond the (admittdely quite good) hot-plate and salad bar options, and Yuji Ramen is leading the charge for turning the yuppy supermarket chain into a bonafide dining destination. Located on the top floor of the chain's Bowery location, the eleven-seat counter, helmed by Yuji Haraguhi, started as a pop-up in Williamsburg and has since gained a cultish following for its creative take on Japanese noodles. It's best known for its mazamen, or brothless noodles, especially the Bacon and Egg Bowl, a play on a carbonara.

Bacchanalia (Atlanta, GA)

Find it inside: Star Provisions
Address and phone: 1198 Howell Mill Rd (404-365-0410)
Website: starprovisions.com/bacchanalia
To enter one of Atlanta's top restaurants, diners must walk through Star Provisions—a gourmet supermarket that's a bonafide food-nerd haven, complete with not just top-notch groceries, but also cookbooks, tableware, and more. There are stories of guests leaving the table between courses just to peruse the stores shelves, with one woman in particular insisting upon purchasing fine cheeses each time. The kitchens deft hand with seasonal and local produce has earned Bacchanalia a reputation as one of "the city's most memorable dining experience[s]" by Atlanta Magazine.

Chef's Table at Brooklyn Fare (Brooklyn, NY)

Find it inside: Brooklyn Fare
Address and phone: 200 Schermerhorn St, Boerum Hill, Brooklyn (718-243-0050)
Website:brooklynfare.com/pages/chefs-table
Imagine taking a trip to a neighborhood grocery store not for milk and eggs, but rather a Michelin starred meal—three Michelin stars, to be precise (the first NYC restaurant outside of Manhattan to earn that honor). That is exactly the this eighteen-seat restaurant from chef César Ramirez, a technician who turns out 20 impeccable courses, many with inspiration from the kaiseki dinners of Japan. With a new location of the Brooklyn Fare market now open in Manhattan, gastronauts are eagerly awaiting the opening of a 45-seat restaurant later this month.

Puckett's Grocery (Nashville, TN)

Find it inside: Puckett's Grocery
Address and phone: 500 Church St (615-770-2772)
Website:puckettsgrocery.com
The first location of this family-owned restaurant/grocery store has been around since the 1950s, and for good reason. The throwback country-store feel and homey Southern dishes—fried catfish, Cajun-style chicken and waffles—make it popular not only among the local crowd, but also famous musicians such as Paramore and Sheryl Crow.

Santouka Ramen (Los Angeles, CA)

Find it inside: Mitsuwa Marketplace
Address and phone: 2760 S Centinela Ave (310-391-1101)
Website:santouka.co.jp
L.A.'s Mitsuwa Marketplace is a Japanese mega-mart that's a destination not only for expat shoppers, but also chowhounds who storm the killer food court inside. Among the options is an outpost of Santouka Ramen, a popular ramen chain in Japan, that serves some of L.A.'s best noodles in all the major styles—shio (salt), miso, shoyu (soy), and tonkotsu (featuring a creamy pork broth). Before you sit down, cruise the market and pick up snacks like bento boxes and onigiri to go with your ramen.

Kamdar Plaza (Chicago, IL)

Find it inside: Kamdar Plaza
Address and phone: 2646 W Devon Ave (773-338-8100)
Website:kamdarplaza.com
Located on Devon Avenue, one of Chicago's most culturally rich throoughfares, Kamdar Plaza is the store of choice for anyone in the Midwest looking to stock up Indian pantry staples. While the sheer number basmati rice options on offer are impressive, the real highlight is the affordable, quick-service restaurant in the back, known for dishing up authentic Indian street food favorites. Don't let the peeling circa 1980s benches and paper plates fool you—the richly spiced food easily surpasses that found in far more expensive establishments. Be sure to order the pav baji—a spicy mashed vegetable dish reminiscent of a sloppy joe, served with piles of fresh, buttery grilled hamburger buns.

La Bodega (Miami, FL)

Find it inside: La Bodega
Address and phone: 13774 N Kendall Dr (305-386-8836)
Website: labodegaperuvianrestaurant.com
Miami is well-known for its wealth of Cuban cuisine, but fewer people realize that it also has a significant Peruvian population serving some of the best old-country grub around. Case in point: La Bodega, which not only functions as a Peruvian grocery store stocked with difficult-to-source ingredients, but also runs a full kitchen that turns out an extensive menu of Peruvian dishes not often found in restaurants. Locals rave about the seafood chaufa (a version of fried rice), lomo saltado (stir-fried beef), and reasonable prices.

Todd's BBQ (Frankfort, IL)

Find it inside: Mariano's Fresh Market
Address and phone: 21001 S La Grange Rd (815-464-3376)
Website:marianos.com
The people of the small town of Frankfort, IL don't have to settle for a run-of-the-mill deli counter when they're on the hunt for meat at their local grocery store. Instead, they can visit a stellar barbecue joint that smoke its own meats daily inside the store. If you're too hungry to wait to get home for signature items like pulled pork and brisket—each served with three different sauces—you can opt to dine-in and eat right there in the store. Todd's even takes reservations.

Joong Boo Market (Chicago, IL)

Find it inside: Joong Boo Market
Address and phone: 3333 N Kimball Ave (773-478-5566)
Website: joongboomarket.com
This incredibly popular and crammed Korean market in Chicago is perhaps best known for its mind-boggling array of Korean products—it was even featured on an episode of Bizarre Foods. There may be more varieties of kimchee than you can hope to sample, but clarity can be found among the 30 straight-forward Korean classics that are churned out by the in-store restaurant. From chap chae (stir-fried sweet potato noodles) to bibimbap, Joong Boo serves some of the best-value Korean food in town, with many dishes coming in around the $6.50 mark.

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